The present invention related generally to networks and, more particularly, to systems and methods for protecting class of service.
Data transported through a network is often transferred in data units. To distinguish one type of data unit from another, data units may be marked with priority information. The class of service (CoS) field is an example of such priority marking. Priority fields may affect the way data is handled in the network. For example, data may be queued, dequeued, forwarded, and discarded in a certain manner based on priority.
Voice data is often marked as high priority because voice data is real-time data and therefore needs to be transported with a higher priority relative to other data. It has been proposed to assign a particular priority value to voice data in networks. This allows voice data to be identified and treated uniquely relative to other data. Problems may arise however, if a sender attempts to transmit non-voice data marked with a priority indicating it is voice data. The sender is attempting to give its non-voice data priority over other non-voice data. A network element, other than the sender, may also be configured to mark the priority field to indicate voice data is being transported when in fact the data is not voice data.
Data units marked incorrectly as voice data may cause problems in the network. For example, congestion may occur in the voice traffic and valid voice data may be dropped.
Thus, there is a need for adequately addressing these types of problems in a network.